Chocolate Spiced Babka Bread

Bread and basically anything carby & CAKEY has always been my favorite thing in life, however, my gut issues and wanting to stay lean and healthy make eating traditional gluten bread and sugary cake NOT reality… But I could never live life always feeling like I am depriving myself of my favorite things, are you with me? That Is why I am so passionate about my keto & paleo-friendly Bakerlita Beauty-Bread Mix, and I hope you will be too! It’s all about baking to BLESS right, NOT baking to be BLOATED FAT and have horrible brain-fog haha…

All the best-baked goods come from Europe. Last November I made a divine heavenly, low carb, 7 Layered Spartak Cake, which is an Eastern European traditional cake from Ukraine. My Grandmother comes from Ukraine and LOVED to bake, so I guess that is why baking is in my blood ;)

If you want to know what makes a GOOD European baked good, it is pretty simple; BUTTER and lots of it ;) When you walk down the streets in Europe the amazing aroma of FRESH BAKED GOODS fill the air with that beautiful quality buttery sensation.

I get pretty bored just making cookies, brownies, or anything that I can execute in less than 20min haha… I get bored easily, not sure if that a good thing or not. Anyways, I wanted to try that incredible Chocolate Cinnamon Babka Bread. It is a beautifully moist, dense buttery bread that has a gorgeous chocolate swirl. I also added a pinch of cinnamon to add a warm extra boldness to thisKeto Babka Bread.

When I saw this recipe, the part when you had to cut the roll in half, then twist it over top of one another like a braid I almost closed my computer and said: "forget this!"… Then I realized it was actually MUCH easier then it looks, please trust me! I have my top 6 tips I am going to be sharing with you, follow them and you will be GOLDEN!

This recipe is now one of my favorites, and I am sure it will be yours too! I am definitely going to be baking a YouTube Video in the near future, of course, if this is something you would be interested in ;) PLEASE comment below if this would be something you would love to learn on my Bakerlita Bakery Channel!

I didn’t stop there; you know I am all about beauty-enhancing, healing ingredients, right? If you don't already know, my Bakerlita Beauty-Bread Mix has 5g of collagen in each slice!  I use the highest quality collagen, it is by Organika. Collagen boosts this bread up even more to add more than it just tasting amazing, it benefits your hair, nails, skin, and GUT!

Baking bread scares most people, even I have cried many times with epic fails. However, using my Bakerlita Beauty-Bread Mix made this pretty much dummy-proof, so you don’t have to be scared because you won't have to make this from scratch… AND, there is no need for proofing the dough with Beauty Bread Mix either, YAY!

My Top 6 Tips for making Chocolate Babka Bread

This recipe is traditional a very sticky dough due to gluten, sugar, butter, and eggs. The Bakerlita dough is always pretty sticky, yet, I have so of my tips and tricks so you won't have a giant mess of sticky keto dough all over your kitchen ;)

1. Make sure all your wet ingredients are warm: With the Bakerlita Beauty Bread Mix it is VERY important that you use room temp eggs, melted butter, and warm water to ensure your dry ingredients get well incorporated throughout!
2. Cooling the dough: After the dough is well I mixed, you will see that it is STICKY like I mentioned above… No problem, all you have to do is place a piece of saran wrap of a tea-towel over then dough and pop it in the fridge for at least 30min to firm up.
3. Flour your surface: This trip may get a few haters, but I use a bit of tapioca flour to dust my dough, rolling pin & surface before I start rolling to ensure your precious dough doesn’t stick to your countertop ;)
4. Spreading the chocolate LOVE: Okay, I was playing around (a.k.a shooting for this blog post) my chocolate ganache on top of my rolled dough and it hardened up VERY quickly and I couldn’t spread it… All I will say is it was a disaster, but I managed, and that’s all I will say haha! So moral of the story spread the chocolate as quickly as you can and you will be good!
5. The water around the edges: Using a small pastry brush, dip into the water, brush around edges of the dough to allow the dough to infuse/stick together.
6. Chill the dough a second time when all rolled up: I recommend this because it allows a very nice, smooth, mess-free clean cut down the surface of the dough. Also, it helps to keep the dough tightly together as you twisting it into a cute little loaf!

I want to let you know that no one has thought me how to bake, you just need to get out of your comfort zone, put your apron on and get baking to bless your body…I also want to encourage you, if it doesn’t turn out beautiful, it will still TASTE AMAZING… so there is no fails in the end. #BakeTheBakerlitaWay to #BakeToBless <3

Blessings,

Andrea Witthoeft | Bakerlita

RECIPE

DRY INGREDIENTS

1 package of Bakerlita's Beauty Bread Mix 
¾ cup Lakanto Golden (monk fruit sweetener)
1tbsp honey to active the yeast
6 whole eggs
2 cups warm water
½ cup butter (grass-fed)
2tsp vanilla extract

CHOCOLATE SPICED BUTTER GANACHE

4.5oz Lily's Chocolate Chips 
½ Cup Butter (grass-fed)
1/2 Cup Lakanto Powdered Sugar 
¼ Cup Dutch Coco
¼ tsp nutmeg
1tsp cinnamon
1tsp salt

INSTRUCTIONS 

1. Pour the entire pack of *Bakerlita Beauty-Bread Mix* into a large bowl, add collagen and Lakanto and whisk together.
2. In a blender add all your wet ingredients, room temp eggs, melted butter, warm water, and honey to activate the yeast and vanilla, and BLEND.
3. Pour in the entire wet mixture on top of your try ingredients. Using a rubber spatula mix together until it forms a big lump of KETO BEAUTY DOUGH!
4. Cover with plastic wrap and place into the fridge to allow to harden up.
for the filling
1. Meanwhile, make the filling. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and then add in the Lily’s Chocolate (or any keto chocolate), stirring to combine and melt. Add the Lakanto powdered sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, nutmeg & salt and mix well. Allow the mixture to cool completely before pouring on the dough!
for assembly
1. Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C).
2. Line a 7 by 4-inch loaf pan with parchment paper and set aside.
3. Coat a large area with tapioca flour and turn the dough out onto the surface.
4. Roll out to about a 10-inch width (the side closest to you) and as long in length (away from you) as you can when rolling it thin, likely 10 to 12 inches.
5. Spread the chocolate mixture evenly over the dough, leaving a 1-inch border all around.
6. To help the dough stick together, brush the end farthest away from you with water.
7. Roll the dough up with the filling into a long, tight cigar. Seal the dampened end onto the log by pinching the dough together.
8. What worked the best is to transfer the log to a baking tray with parchment, and place it in the freezer for 15 minutes! This made it so much easier to cut cleanly in half.
9. Trim last 1/2-inch off each end of the log. Gently cut the log in half down the center, lengthwise and lay them next to each other on the counter
10. Cut sides up are making two loaves.
11. Pinch the top ends gently. Lift one side over the next, creating a beautiful twist and trying to keep the cut sides facing up to show off the chocolate.
12. Scoop up loaf into the prepared loaf pan.
13. Bake loaf in a pre-heat oven, place loaf on the middle rack of your oven. Bake for 45 minutes
14. NOTE: as you can see in my pictures it browned a bit too quickly, next time I will cover it with foil.
15. Once the Babka is done, let it cool to room temperature for at least 25minutes… I know this part is tempting, BUT you must let it cool before peaking at those gorgeous chocolate swirls!
16. SLICE, & ENJOY BREAKING BREAD THE BAKERLITA WAY! 

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